Arts-Integrated Lessons: Teaching Through Theater

These workshops use dramatic activities to teach lessons throughout the elementary and middle school curricula, and are directly linked to the Common Core State Standards, Wisconsin’s Model Academy Standards, and 21st Century Learning Skills. ELA, Science, and Social Studies curriculum are brought to through dramatic learning techniques such as role play, improvised scene work, movement based exercises and pantomime.

Classroom teachers are supplied with comprehensive lesson plans to continue the learning experience in between and after the Teaching Artists’ visits.

Price: $350 per classroom for the first classroom; $300 for each subsequent classroom

Frog and Toad (Grades K3 – 1): Act out stories of friendship with Frog and Toad. Students retell Frog and Toad stories, describe characters, setting and events, and compare and contrast the experiences of the main characters in the stories (CCSS-ELA: RL.K.2, RL.K.3, RL.1.4, RL.1.9, SL.K.2, SL.1.6).

Memoirs (Grades 5-7): Discover the stories we want to be remembered for. Stories are packed with imagery and emotion. Students will actively explore and relive special moments from their life, and share these descriptive narratives with their classmates. (CCSS.ELA-Literacy: W.5.3, W.5.3b, W.5.3d, SL.5.1a, W.6.3, W.6.3d, W.7.3, W.7.3a, SL.7.1d)

Purely Poetry (Grades 6 – 8): Explore rhythm and performance, and create personal poems of celebration. Students will compare and contrast the experience of reading and performing poetry, analyze how a poem’s structure influences its meaning, and utilize speech in a variety of contexts to add interest and develop point of view (CCSS-ELA: RL.6.4, RL.7.4, RL.7.5, RL.8.6, RL.6.7, SL.8.6).

SOCIAL STUDIES

People in our Neighborhood (Grades K5 – 2): Discover how all the different people in your neighborhood help your community. Using informational text, students identify characters and setting in their community, compare and contrast families, and describe how institutions contribute to the well-being of the community (CCSS-ELA: RI.1.2, RI.1.3; Model Academic Standards-Social Studies: E.4.3, E.4.5).

Heroes of Yesterday and Today (Grades 3 – 5): Step into the shoes of incredible people who helped shape America. Through examinations of biographies, stories, letters and diaries, students will construct an understanding of past extraordinary Americans and their impact on values such as freedom, courage, and integrity (CCSS-ELA: RI.3.1, RI.5.2, RI.5.3; Model Academic Standards-History: B.4.3, B.4.2, B.4.1).

Life of the Lumberjack (Grades 4 – 5): Go back in time to experience a lumberjack camp in action. Students identify important events in Wisconsin history, identify the collaboration and interdependency among lumberjacks, and compare and contrast contemporary life with life in the past (CCSS-ELA: R1.5.2, RI.5.3; Model Academic Standards-History: B.4.3, B.4.4, B.4.7, B.8.4).

Colonial America (Grades 5 – 7): Experience life through a colonist’s eyes and make decisions about the future of the colonies. Students recall significant events and people, and analyze their relationship to important political values such as freedom, equality and Democracy; Students examine cause and effect and differing points of view of historical events (CCSS-ELA: RI.5.2, RI.5.3; Model Academic Standards-History: B.8.2, B.8.3, B.8.4, B.8.5, B.8.6, B.8.7, B.8.10).

The Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. (Grades 6 – 8): Develop a deep understanding of this important time in history through dramatic explorations. Students analyze influential historical people and events to determine the effects of significant events, interpret differing perspectives, and examine political values such as freedom, equality and justice (Model Academic Standards-History: B.8.2, B.8.4, B.8.5, B.8.6, B.8.10).

SCIENCE

Cycles in Nature (Grades K4 – 1): Creatively move your way through the water cycle, plant cycle, butterfly cycle and more. Students discover how organisms respond to environmental changes and internal needs, and illustrate patterns and cycles in living organisms and the environment (Model Academic Standards-Science: F.4.2, F.4.3, E.4.6).

Our Stellar Solar System (Grades K5 – 2): Take a journey into space and make stops at all the planets in our solar system. Using informational text, students identify celestial objects and ask questions and make predictions (CCSS-ELA: RI.1.2, RI.2.3, RI.K.7; Model Academic Standards-Science: C.4.2, E.4.4).

Journey to the Center of the Earth (Grades 3 – 4): Students will be encouraged to imagine, enact and reflect upon the experiences of geologists seeking answers to the scientific riddles regarding recent earthquakes and volcanic activity as they explore the earth’s crust. Students will be asked to apply their knowledge of igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks. (E.4.1) Investigate that earth materials are composed of rocks and soils and correctly use the vocabulary for rocks, minerals, and soils during these investigations (C.4.2) Use the science content being learned to ask questions, plan investigations, make observations, make predictions, and offer explanations.

Invention Convention (Grades 3 – 5): Develop a museum honoring the six simple machines. Students will ask questions to discover how machines were invented, analyze how science discoveries led to changes in technology, and observe objects at rest and in motion (CCSS-ELA: RI.5.3; Model Academic Standards-Science: D.4.6, G.4.3, G.4.5).